- White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows spoke with host Jake Tapper on CNN’s State of the Union on Sunday, urging him to send votes to Americans across the country “asking for a disaster.”
- Tapper stressed Meadows’ decision by the president and first lady to vote by mail and little to no evidence of widespread fraud in mail-voting.
- Despite the lack of evidence, “there is no evidence that there is not either,” Meadows said.
- The chief of staff also wrote back in a report that the postmaster general had ordered the removal of 671 mail sorting machines, the latest in the austerity measures of the Trump appointee who delayed the service before the election.
- Visit the Business Insider website for more stories.
White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows spared host Jake Tapper on CNN’s State of the Union on Sunday, doubling down on the administration’s previous claims over voting via mail.
Tapper repeatedly pressured Meadows to reject President Donald Trump’s signing of a relief bill that includes federal funds for U.S. Postal Service necessities, sabotaging mail-in-vote, but Meadows dismissed the idea that Trump helped block the service and said the White House could be open to passing a standalone bill for USPS funding.
Tapper pointed out that President and First Lady Melania Trump would vote by mail in vote this year in Florida, asking Meadows for the difference “between voting by mail in Florida and, say, voting by mail in Pennsylvania?”
Meadows said he made no difference, but said he was afraid that votes from him and other Americans would be “detached”, adding that sending ballots to Americans in the country “required a disaster.”
“But there is no evidence of widespread voter fraud,” Tapper said.
“There’s no proof that that’s not either,” Meadows shot back. “That’s the definition of fraud, Jake.”
—CNN Politics (@CNNPolitics) August 16, 2020
Meadows’ comments are the latest from Trump’s camp trying to undermine the service and worry about voters securing their votes for election day in November. The administration has raised alarms with reports central to Postmaster General Louis DeJoy, who has introduced several austerity measures that have slowed the service rapidly.
NBC News reported last week that DeJoy would release 671 mail sorters, delaying letter processing. Meadows shot back at the report Sunday, promising that all machines would remain online until the election.
“There are no sorting machines going offline between now and the election,” Meadows said. “That’s what my Democratic friends are trying to do to put fears in. That’s not happening.”
Tapper asked about “those who have been taken offline in the last few months,” which Meadows later said was part of an “already planned reorganization.”
Grace Panetta of Business Insider previously reported that the financial decline of the service has been over several years and was accelerated by the new coronavirus pandemic. The Washington Post reported last week officials from post offices warned 46 states that the slow service could risk missing voting dates for voters to receive and return votes.
